Apple M2

Apple M2
Apple M2 Pro
Apple M2 Max
Apple M2 Ultra
General information
Launched	M2: June 24, 2022; 22 months ago; M2 Pro and Max: January 17, 2023; 15 months ago; M2 Ultra: June 13, 2023; 10 months ago
Designed by	Apple Inc.
Common manufacturer(s)	TSMC;
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate	3.49 GHz[citation needed]
Cache
L1 cache	Performance cores; 192+128 KB per core; Efficiency cores; 128+64 KB per core
L2 cache	Performance cores; M2: 16 MB; M2 Pro and M2 Max: 32 MB; M2 Ultra: 64 MB; ; Efficiency cores; M2, M2 Pro, M2 Max: 4 MB; M2 Ultra: 8 MB
Last level cache	M2: 8 MB; M2 Pro: 24 MB; M2 Max: 48 MB; M2 Ultra: 96 MB
Architecture and classification
Application	M2: Notebook (MacBook family), tablet (iPad Pro and iPad Air), desktop (Mac Mini), mixed reality headset (Vision Pro); M2 Pro: Notebook (MacBook Pro), desktop (Mac mini); M2 Max: Notebook (MacBook Pro), desktop (Mac Studio); M2 Ultra: Desktop (Mac Studio, Mac Pro)
Technology node	5 nm (N5P)
Microarchitecture	"Avalanche" and "Blizzard"
Instruction set	ARMv8.6-A
Physical specifications
Transistors	M2: 20 billion; M2 Pro: 40 billion; M2 Max: 67 billion; M2 Ultra: 134 billion;
Cores	M2: 8 (4× high-performance + 4× high-efficiency); M2 Pro: 10 or 12 (6× or 8× high-performance + 4× high-efficiency); M2 Max: 12 (8× high-performance + 4× high-efficiency); M2 Ultra: 24 (16× high-performance + 8× high-efficiency);
Memory (RAM)	LPDDR5 memory; 6400 MT/s; M2: up to 24 GB; M2 Pro: up to 32 GB; M2 Max: up to 96 GB; M2 Ultra: up to 192 GB;
GPU(s)	Apple-designed integrated graphics; M2: 8 or 10 core GPU; M2 Pro: 16 or 19 core GPU; M2 Max: 30 or 38 core GPU; M2 Ultra: 60 or 76 core GPU
Products, models, variants
Variant(s)	Apple A15;
History
Predecessor(s)	Apple M1
Successor(s)	Apple M3

Apple M2 is a series of ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. as a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) for its Mac desktops and notebooks, the iPad Pro and iPad Air tablets, and the Vision Pro mixed reality headset. It is the second generation of ARM architecture intended for Apple's Mac computers after switching from Intel Core to Apple silicon, succeeding the M1. Apple announced the M2 on June 6, 2022, at Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), along with models of the MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro using the M2. The M2 is made with TSMC's "Enhanced 5-nanometer technology" N5P process and contains 20 billion transistors, a 25% increase from the M1. Apple claims CPU improvements up to 18% and GPU improvements up to 35% compared to the M1.^[4]

The M2 was followed by the professional-focused M2 Pro and M2 Max chips in January 2023. The M2 Max is a higher-powered version of the M2 Pro, with more GPU cores and memory bandwidth, and a larger die size.^[5] In June 2023, Apple introduced the M2 Ultra, a desktop workstation chip containing two M2 Max units.^[1] Its successor, Apple M3, was announced on October 30, 2023.

Design

CPU

The M2 has four high-performance @3.49 GHz "Avalanche" and four energy-efficient @2.42 GHz "Blizzard" cores, first seen in the A15 Bionic, providing a hybrid configuration similar to ARM DynamIQ, as well as Intel's Alder Lake and Raptor Lake processors. The high-performance cores have 192 KB of L1 instruction cache and 128 KB of L1 data cache and share a 16 MB L2 cache;^[6] the energy-efficient cores have a 128 KB L1 instruction cache, 64 KB L1 data cache, and a shared 4 MB L2 cache. It also has an 8 MB system level cache shared by the GPU.

The M2 Pro has 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores in the unbinned model, or 6 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores in the binned model. The M2 Max has 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores in both the binned and unbinned SKUs, and operates at a slightly higher 3.7GHz clock speed in some models.^[7]

GPU

The M2 integrates an Apple designed ten-core (eight in some base models) graphics processing unit (GPU). Each GPU core is split into 16 execution units, which each contain eight arithmetic logic units (ALUs). In total, the M2 GPU contains up to 160 execution units or 1280 ALUs, which have a maximum floating point (FP32) performance of 3.6 TFLOPs.

The M2 Pro integrates a 19-core (16 in some base models) GPU, while the M2 Max integrates a 38-core (30 in some base models) GPU. In total, the M2 Max GPU contains up to 608 execution units or 4864 ALUs, which have a maximum floating point (FP32) performance of 13.6 TFLOPS.

The M2 Ultra features a 60- or 76-core GPU with up to 9728 ALUs and 27.2 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

Memory

The M2 uses 6,400 MT/s LPDDR5 SDRAM in a unified memory configuration shared by all the components of the processor. The SoC and RAM chips are mounted together in a system-in-a-package design. 8 GB, 16 GB and 24 GB configurations are available. It has a 128-bit memory bus with 100 GB/s bandwidth, and the M2 Pro, M2 Max, and M2 Ultra have approximately 200 GB/s, 400 GB/s, and 800 GB/s respectively.^[8]

Other features

The M2 contains dedicated neural network hardware in a 16-core Neural Engine capable of executing 15.8 trillion operations per second. Other components include an image signal processor, a PCIe storage controller, a Secure Enclave, and a USB4 controller that includes Thunderbolt 3 (Thunderbolt 4 on Mac mini) support. The M2 Pro and Max support Thunderbolt 4.

Supported codecs on the M2 include 8K H.264, 8K H.265 (8/10bit, up to 4:4:4), 8K Apple ProRes, VP9, and JPEG.

Products that use the Apple M2 series

M2

MacBook Air (13-inch, M2, 2022)
MacBook Air (15-inch, M2, 2023)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, 2022)
iPad Pro (11-inch, 4th generation) (2022)
iPad Pro (12.9-inch, 6th generation) (2022)
Mac Mini (2023)
Vision Pro (2024)^[2]
iPad Air (6th generation) (2024)

M2 Pro

M2 Max

M2 Ultra

Mac Studio (2023)^[8]
Mac Pro (2023)^[8]

Variants

The table below shows the various SoCs based on the "Avalanche" and "Blizzard" microarchitectures.^[9]^[10]

Variant	CPU		GPU			NPU		Memory		Transistor count
Variant	P-cores^[a]	E-cores^[b]	Cores^[c]	EU	ALU	Cores	Performance	Controllers^[d]	Bandwidth	Transistor count
A15 Bionic	2	3	5	80	640	16	15.8 TOPS	4	34.1 GB/s	15 billion
		4	4	64	512			4
		4	5	80	640			6
M2	4	4	8	128	1024			8–24	102.4 GB/s	20 billion
M2	4	4	10	160	1280			8–24	102.4 GB/s	20 billion
M2 Pro	6	4	16	256	2048			16–32	204.8 GB/s	40 billion
	8		16	256	2048
	8		19	304	2432
M2 Max	8	4	30	480	3840			32–96	409.6 GB/s	67 billion
M2 Max	8	4	38	608	4864			32–96	409.6 GB/s	67 billion
M2 Ultra	16	8	60	960	7680	32	31.6 TOPS	64–192	819.2 GB/s	134 billion
M2 Ultra	16	8	76	1216	9728	32	31.6 TOPS	64–192	819.2 GB/s	134 billion

References

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